Five named Thurnau Professors

The Board of Regents has named five faculty members to the Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship, an award that recognizes and rewards faculty
for outstanding contributions to undergraduate education.

Those honored are: William Alexander, professor of English
language and literature in LSA; H. Scott Fogler, Vennema
Professor of Chemical Engineering and professor of chemical engineering
in the College of Engineering (CoE); Richard Hume, professor
of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, LSA; Dr. Timothy
Johnson, Bates Professor of Diseases of Women and Children and
professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the Medical School, and professor
of women's studies in LSA; and Yili Liu, associate professor
of industrial and operations engineering, CoE.

Provost Paul N. Courant recommended the appointments, and the regents approved the nominations at the February meeting. The term of
the professorship is July 1, 2003-June 30, 2006.

Established by the regents in 1988, the professorships are named after Arthur F. Thurnau, a U-M student in 1902­04, and are supported by
the Thurnau Charitable Trust, which was established through his will. Recipients receive a grant to support their teaching.

Alexander (Photo by D.C. Goings)

Alexander's "service to students, both in innovative courses
like English 319 and English 310—community service courses in which
he trains students to facilitate theater workshops in prisons, juvenile
facilities and Detroit high schools —and outside the classroom in
the Prison Creative Arts Project, is scholarly and admirable," Courant
said. "As an outstanding mentor and role model, he helps students
to think about ways of connecting their intellectual life to a life of
significant community action."

Alexander was honored with the Amoco Good Teaching Award in 1982, and LSA presented him with the Excellence in Education Award
in 1996. In 2001, his Prison Creative Arts Project was cited in the President's Commission on the Undergraduate Experience as a model program
for improving students' civic education and engagement.

Fogler (Photo courtesy CoE)

Fogler has helped train multiple generations of undergraduate
chemical engineering students, Courant said. "He has a wide range
of impressive accomplishments in the classroom, in the preparation of
educational materials, in innovations, and in scholarly contributions
related to teaching and learning," Courant said. "An early-adopter
of new teaching methods, he has familiarized himself with best practices
and has implemented them in his teaching of the undergraduate chemical
engineering course, Reaction Engineering and Design."

Among his many awards and honors are the Excellence in Teaching Award presented by the Department of Chemical Engineering in 1993,
and the Stephen S. Attwood Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research in 1995, the college's most prestigious award given for
extraordinary achievement in teaching, research, service and other activities. His textbook, "The Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering," is the
dominant undergraduate text in this country and the rest of the world, Courant said.

As associate chair of curriculum in the formerly named Department of Biology,
Hume spearheaded major initiatives aimed at reorganizing and improving
the introductory biology sequence and the structure of the concentrations,
Courant said. "He was the driving force

Hume (Photo by Martin Vloet, U-M Photo Services)

behind efforts to offer new project laboratory courses in neurobiology,
microbiology and plant molecular biology to help undergraduate students
gain valuable experience in laboratory research, and fostered the creation
of new 'hands-on' research experiences for students interested in the
life sciences," Courant said. "In the recent past, he has made
exceptional contributions to two of the most important undergraduate courses,
Introductory Biology and Animal Physiology, and he has introduced two
additional specialty courses for undergraduate students."

In 1996, Hume was honored with LSA's Excellence in Education Award for special contributions to the educational mission, excellence in
teaching, curricular innovation and student supervision.

Johnson has become extensively involved in undergraduate education,
even though his appointment in the Medical School does not require it,
Courant said. "He has created and taught new courses that are at
the cutting edge of their field," Courant said. As co-instructor

Johnson (Photo courtesy Biomedical Communications)

of Women's Reproductive Health, "he has received truly impressive
evaluations from students," Courant said. He also made "substantial
contributions" as a member of the President's Commission on the Undergraduate
Experience, Courant said.

"An empathic listener, a thoughtful critic and a tireless advocate
he gets excited about his students' work," the provost said.

Liu's history of teaching evaluations "is remarkable and reflects not only on his teaching style and passion for his subject, but a deep respect
and care for his students," Courant said. His textbook, "An Introduction to Human Factors Engineering," is one of the top two best-selling
introductory human factors textbooks nationally and internationally. During his time as the Undergraduate Program Advisor, undergraduate enrollment
has grown substantially, Courant said.

Liu (Photo by David Smith)

Liu has received many awards, including the Industrial and Operations
Engineering Outstanding Teacher Award in 1994; the Alpha Pi MU Industrial
and Operations Engineering Professor of the Year Award in 1995, 2000 and
2001; and the Outstanding Teacher Award in 1999 and 2001 from the CoE's
Society of Women Engineers/Society of Minority Engineering Students. In
2002, he was given the highly competitive Education Excellence Award from
CoE for sustained excellence in curricular development, instruction and
guidance at the undergraduate and graduate levels.